


Mutually Assured Infatuation

by Meatball42



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Didn't Know They Were Dating, Fluff, Gift Giving, Light Angst, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-01-07
Packaged: 2018-09-10 21:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8939161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: When Steve gifts Tony a teddy bear to help him get better after he’s injured on a mission, Tony decides he can’t let it stand.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dapperanachronism](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapperanachronism/gifts).



When Tony blearily claws his way to consciousness, he honestly thinks he has a hangover.

That is, until he opens his eyes and encounters the pale blue walls and white curtains of the Avengers Tower’s medical bay. “Again? Really?” he complains to the universe.

“Yes, really,” says a crisp voice from his bedside.

Tony turns his aching head- slowly, slowly- until he sees Pepper Potts, seated with her legs crossed on one of the comfortable waiting chairs. She’s dressed to impress in a gray power suit, and her cleanly manicured nails click on the surface of her tablet as she types away.

“You have a concussion. Again.” She looks up just to glare. “ _Really._ ”

“In my defense-”

“I know. Saving the world, defending freedom, et cetera.”

Tony squints against the too-bright lights. “I’m sensing a real lack of sympathy here.”

“You’re alive,” Pepper says dryly. “I’ve learned to be grateful for the little things.” She turns off the tablet and slips it into the bag resting on the chair beside her, then pulls out another one and sets it by Tony’s knees. “Don’t give yourself a headache trying to read too much.”

“I know the drill,” Tony sighs.

“But if you do,” Pepper continues, with a new lightness to her tone, “there’s someone here who’d love to help you out.”

Tony follows her mischievous smile to the bedside table, where a card with a rainbow proclaims ‘Get Well Soon!’ The card is propped up against a teddy bear.

The teddy bear's stomach says, ‘Hug me!’ in bright red, and its arms are splayed like a demonic sacrifice.

~ ~ * ~ ~

Tony ignores the demon bear and works on his tablet. He gives himself a headache, accepts some pain medication, and slips off into an undisturbed sleep. When he wakes up, Rhodey has arrived to give his version of the ‘stop crashing into buildings' lecture and to, predictably, tease him about the present and card.

“I don’t know, it really screams ‘I care about you and want you to feel safe’,” Rhodey says with faux thoughtfulness. “I think you should take it to heart.”

“I wonder what its melting point is,” Tony rejoins.

“Nuh-uh, this is a bear made with love. No heat or ice can kill it. Its heart will go on.”

Tony shakes his head, then moans a little as the unplanned motion sends shards through his cranium. “Repulsor blast- should do the trick.”

“You won’t be repulsoring anything for a while,” Tony hears, and Steve steps by the curtain to enter the room.

“Ridiculous,” Tony says, gritting his teeth to sound coherent. “I’m fit as a fiddle. Riled up and ready for action, Capitano.”

Rhodey tries to stifle his chortling in his sleeve. Steve merely raises his eyebrows.

Tony lifts up his hand where the IV is placed. “What’s in this thing, anyway?”

“Is your head feeling all stuffed with fluff?” Rhodey asks, because when he’s not being a Debbie Downer he just loves to give Tony shit.

Before Tony can shoot back something disparaging, Steve brightens. “Oh, did you like him?”

“Ahh…”

“Edward Bear,” Steve explains, gesturing to the bedside where the demon bear has retained its altar, solely because Tony’s shoulder was too sore from the crash to shove it under the bed where it belongs. “I thought it was nifty- your middle name being Edward and all.”

“So it really is Winnie the Pooh?” Rhodey asks incredulously, a massive, evil smile spreading over his face.

“Not really,” Steve admits, shrugging his massive shoulders. “But it’s the thought that counts. I had a teddy bear when I was little, and people still have them today. I, uh, Googled it.” Steve only hesitates a bit over the newfangled term.

“There’s no way I should find that adorable,” Tony thinks. When Rhodey actually chokes on air, he realizes it came out of his mouth.

Steve, however, just smiles. “I hope he makes your stay here a bit easier. Because it’ll be for at least a few days, and then we’re waiting for medical advice before you’re reinstated-” he finishes in a loud voice over Tony’s complaints.

Rhodey is snickering again. “Rogers, you’re one of my new favorite people.”

Tony’s glare promises certain doom.

Edward Bear looks on impassively.

~ ~ * ~ ~

Obviously, Tony couldn’t let it stand.

Since the bear was, apparently, given in earnest and not as a horrible prank, and particularly since that sickeningly adorable story was attached (Tony couldn’t help but imagine a young Steve Rogers, tiny and sick, curled up in bed with a teddy bear. The image was maddening), he had to do something to give back. Shove it back, more likely. Tony couldn’t let that kind of sentimentality stand, so the only option was to give Steve something to make them even.

The day the doctors allow him ( _allow him_. This is how dedicated Tony is to this team now, he’s following doctors’ orders) to leave the med bay, he heads over to F.A.O. Schwartz and picks up a special something that he ordered from his tablet.

That night, as the Avengers return from their various endeavors and attack the penthouse kitchen in a parody of what Steve has declared ‘team dinner’, the present is waiting in the attached lounge.

“No friggen way!” Clint crows. He hops the back of the couch to get a better view. The others follow him in the more normal fashion of walking around the furniture.

“What… is it?” Bruce asks, giving the gift a look like it might start moving independently.

Tony should have thought of that. Oh well, too late now. “It’s a [tsum tsum](https://cdn-ssl.s7.disneystore.com/is/image/DisneyShopping/1234041282442?%24yetidetail%24).” 

“Why is it dressed like me?” Steve says mildly. He’s stepped closest to the plushie, since it’s in his usual seat on the edge of the couch.

“It’s yours!” Tony says, realizing at this late stage that he shouldn’t have done this in front of the others. “You know… just because.”

“Because I got you the bear?” Steve asks, and Tony cringes, feeling the eyes of his more immature teammates slowly turning to him. Clint’s already on his cell phone, for God’s sake, probably texting Rhodey- it was definitely a mistake to let the two of them meet. “That was a get well present.”

“That’s so nice of you,” Natasha says mildly, and Steve just smiles at her, because he either hasn’t worked out that Natasha is the actual personification of the devil on Earth, or he doesn’t care. She turns her head to Tony and her smile gains an extra tooth on each end. “And so unexpectedly generous of you to return the favor.”

Tony has realized, by now, that there’s no way out of this one. He holds his head high. “I commissioned a trial run of these things. Proceeds will go to the Maria Stark Foundation to support victims of supervillain violence.”

“That’s great, Tony,” Steve says. He looks so warm and approving that Tony knows he’s definitely going to have to go negotiate that deal now. “Thank you.”

“Okay, so, what are we watching?” He claps his hands and JARVIS pulls down a holographic screen of everyone’s nominations for the evening. “Okay, okay, not a chance in hell…”

If he ends up sitting next to Steve, with the tsum tsum Cap between them, Tony hardly notices, really. And he certainly doesn’t pet the thing.

~ ~ * ~ ~

Infuriatingly, it doesn’t end there.

Tony finds [a mug](http://www.zak.com/assets/images/items/zak_kids/ironman/mrti-1592_zakdesigns.jpg) with a comics-style version of the armour on it in his private kitchen. He retaliates with a pair of thick, warm gloves, since the October chill has really started setting in this year and Steve hates the cold.

Steve says he appreciates the practical gift, and for some reason doesn’t consider that to be the end of it either, because Tony finds himself with a day unexpectedly cleared of meetings, just in time for Steve to ‘spontaneously’ drag him to the Museum of Modern Art. Tony acts like he’s just going along with it, but he does love the MOMA, and he takes Steve through one of the yet-to-open galleries with his contributing member pass. When he notices that Steve isn’t loving the exhibit as much as he should he weasels out that Steve isn’t a huge fan of ‘modern art.’

While offended on multiple levels, Tony can’t be left in debt. He takes Steve to a restaurant at the very top of a skyscraper with an incredible view over Manhattan and Brooklyn, and lets Steve think that’s his surprise. Dinner is fantastic, but mostly Tony enjoys watching Steve gaze out as the sun sets, casting their city in rich light and eventually long shadows.

Steve’s eyes reflect the stars when they come out. Tony sips his wine and pretends like he doesn’t notice.

His real make-up for the MOMA is bringing Steve to the Holiday Cheer reception at the Frick Collection. Tony mostly chats with society people and looks around at the paintings before the speeches start, while Steve talks for an hour and a half with a CUNY professor about art something or other.

And he’s not annoyed that Steve spends most of the evening talking to an unexpectedly beautiful woman. This is purely to get them back to even, so that they can finally stop this stupid gifting thing. So they can go back to the way things were, semi-awkward almost-friends and kick-ass teammates.

He tells himself this, trying to act like he’s admiring the play of lights in the fountain or the live music while completely not watching Steve’s every dimply smile or enthusiastic remark.

He’s really screwed.

~ ~ * ~ ~

Tony doesn’t mope, because that’s beneath him. He does devote himself to a few projects that he may, perhaps, have been neglecting recently in favor of teaching Steve video games. The man has an infuriating learning curve.

He turns down a few invitations to see a movie with Steve, or go for a walk in the park on a nice day. Tony hadn’t even realized that that sort of thing had become so common between them. When Steve first moved in, Tony wound up dragging him out on principle, because poor washed-up Cap looked so lonely and confused and out-of-place in his new century, it would’ve been like abandoning a puppy. But when did it become hanging out most days, or heading to a random restaurant off Yelp, or even just strolling around and chatting about nothing? Tony can’t remember.

Saying no to Steve’s everyday invites is bad. The worst is when Steve tells him he got him a present, his lips twisting in that way he has that’s midway between bashful and mischievous, like he’s so goddamn pleased with himself for managing to be sneaky. It makes Tony want to rub his belly in a non-weird way. That or grab him by the hair and do nasty things to him.

When he says he’s got something important to do upstairs, a conference call that he _so obviously_ makes up on the spot, it’s like the lights die out of Steve’s eyes. Tony feels like he took in an abandoned puppy and then abandoned it all over again. He heads for his lab quickly, not looking back because he knows the sight would just pierce him straight through.

Steve’s invites peter off. Something weighs at Tony as the days go by and he manages to avoid seeing Steve for longer and longer stretches. The pressure that had been rising within him, that was one day going to explode and have him slam Steve into a wall, has rescinded, but in its wake is this terrible heaviness. It presses on his shoulders, the back of his neck, making him lower his head in shame, grind his teeth with uncertainty.

Complications, complications, he thinks, mentally hitting himself time and again. This is even worse than fraternizing with a colleague, because Tony’s done that numerous times and ignored any problems it caused. This isn’t just some scientist he may or may not collaborate with, or an employee who he can promote to a different department if they start to hate him. This is inviting discord into a team of super-powered people. They all knew the team balance was going to be delicate going in, particularly with Bruce, who’s understandably sensitive to conflict, and Tony, who breeds conflict just by walking around the Tower. And Tony’s gone and fucked it all up because he just _had_ to fall in- because he just _had_ to think with his dick.

And there is discord. Natasha picked up on it early on and gives Tony silent looks of disapproval whenever she isn’t being nonchalant. Clint started after her, with the sad looks and the “Why’d you gotta do this, man?” over lunch when they were alone.

Bruce only brings the subject up once, when Tony can’t help but turn to him in the middle of a silent, multi-hour shared lab session and vomit up his feelings on the entire affair, start to finish, including his massive fuck-up and his plan to fix it- namely, avoid Steve until his feeling either starve or curl up and die, then be friends the way he should’ve been from the start.

At the end, Bruce purses his lips. “This is not the most rational course of action. You know that, right?”

So obviously that’s no help.

Pepper just rolls her eyes at him, once, _dreadfully_ disdainful, when she finds out. Somehow, that’s the worst.

Two and a half weeks after the Holiday Cheer reception, two and a half of the most painful weeks Tony can remember in recent times (emotionally painful, of course), the Avengers have a private New Year’s Eve dinner in the common space. It’s the longest Tony’s spent around Steve besides a training session since their last da- _since the reception_ , and it’s a bit awkward.

Thor is still stuck in Asgard, Pepper is in California, so it’s up to Clint, Natasha, and Bruce to cover up the awkwardness that Tony and Steve are, between them, radiating. Tony can’t even bring himself to play the good host, as he normally would, with the gregariousness and the graciousness, and the conversation and everything, because… he actually likes these people.

And they’d all see right through him, anyway.

So conversation is a bit stilted, and afterwards Tony’s loading the dishwasher and someone comes up behind him. When the silence stretches he knows who it is.

“Just say it,” Tony sighs.

“I-” Steve gulps audibly, then sighs himself. “I’m sorry, Tony.”

“You- what?” Tony turns, clanking a dish loudly.

“I’m sorry,” Steve repeats sincerely. “I started this whole, exchange, with the bear. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I hope that… we can go back to being friends.”

God, the adorable abandoned puppy is begging to be taken back and forgiven for something he didn’t do. Tony feels his heart compress in on itself like it hates him, too.

He shakes his head. “You didn’t. You were- you were being a good friend. I’m. I’m not the best at that. Just ask Pepper.”

Tony looks up and quickly looks away when he takes in the glowing reignite in Steve’s eyes. If he keeps looking into those baby blues, he’ll never stop.

“I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting.”

It should be the hardest words Tony’s ever said, considering the lengths he’d gone through as a kid to avoid voicing those exact words, no matter who tried to make him. But knowing he’s hurt Steve, they couldn’t be more earnest.

“It’s forgotten,” Steve says. His voice is too low, but Tony catches it because Steve’s stepped closer. Tony’s abruptly aware that they’re only a few inches apart, leaning towards each other over the corner of the open dishwasher, and holy hell this is not the way to avoid romantic- _sexual_ feelings toward America’s finest grade-A beefcake, no siree.

He clears his throat and steps back, inspecting the assorted dishes carefully. Steve’s breath hitches, and he steps back too. Just enough, Tony rationalizes. Friends. Teammates. Safe.

Something whizzes past his head, and Tony flinches, spinning with his hands up in the armor’s defensive positions. Steve’s swung around, too, arm up like it’s bearing his shield. And then they notice, at the same exact time, the arrow lodged at an angle in the ceiling, with a string dangling a sprig of mistletoe below it.

The mistletoe swings, back and forth, a few inches above their heads.

“There’s my gift,” Clint says loudly from the TV room. “My gift to us all, that is, ending this romcom so we can watch Die Hard.”

Natasha, out of sight, clears her throat pointedly.

Steve blushes madly, but always the brave one, he leans in first. The mistletoe brushes against his hair. Tony hesitates a moment, triple-questioning whether this is actually happening or if he’s finally having visual hallucinations from Dum-E’s smoothies, but decides that if he’s going to get punched in the face for this, it’ll be worth it.

Steve’s lips are cool, and soft, and plump, and Tony steps a bit closer to kiss them better. He can feel Steve’s breath on his upper lip and has to reach out to touch before he feels like the world is falling apart.

When they break apart, Steve’s cheeks are bright pink and his hands slide away from Tony’s waist. Tony blinks and quickly asserts his cool-guy demeanor, trying to cover up the completely non-existent shiver in his hands.

“Is that my Christmas present?” he says, smirking.

Steve smiles back, wide and lazy, eyes half-lidded and smoky. “That’s just the start,” he murmurs, leaning in to plant another kiss on Tony’s suddenly numb lips.

Then he takes Tony’s hand and drags his uncooperative body into the TV room.

“It’s a Christmas miracle!” Clint shouts. Bruce chuckles, grinning with genuine joy for his friends. Natasha shakes her head affectionately.

Steve settles on the couch and pulls Tony down beside him- right beside him. When Natasha tosses over the Cap tsum tsum, Steve puts it on both of their laps.

Tony is a little giddy with joy, and that’s why he leans into Steve and decides that it just might be a Christmas miracle after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Go read this remix immediately, it's faaaantastic!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Of Bears and Men (Weaponized Pining Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13646835) by [Neverever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever)




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